Thursday, July 12, 2007

Criticizing Israel in America today, has become tantamount to professional (and often financial) suicide.

Many of those who dared challenging the unwavering support the US gives to Israel, have been attacked and often labeled "anti-Semites", even when they happened to be Jews themselves.

The most worrying of all, is the smear campaign that has been launched against academic freedom in a clear attempt to stifle debate within university campuses. A witch hunt that has been unleashed against prominent scholars, very known for their "non-conformist" comments on Israel and American policies towards it.The All Mighty Israel Lobby has already shown in the past that it was prepared to use all means possible to suppress any dissenting voice from public debate. After having tightened their grip on the media and on both branches of power in Washington, now it's turn for the University to be "disciplined".

People like Norman Finkelstein, and Ward Churchill, know that only too well. Finkelstein, for example, was denied Tenure at Chicago's De Paul University, despite an impressive record of scholarship. An unprecedented campaign of hate, "character assassination" and Ad-Hominem attacks headed by the Israeli crimes apologist, Alan Dershowitz, preceded the decision by the University not to grant Finkelstein a higher position.

AIPAC and the other Pro-Israel Organisations, are in effect, a foreign country's agents in America. With the support they enjoy from today's administration, and the unprecedented power they have succeeded to control, one should really be worried (to say the least) about the state of democracy (in so much as it still exists at all) in a country that describes itself as the "Land of the Free, Home of the Brave".